Day 14

Woohoo! Halfway through the challenge and feeling great! I forgot to do my measurements this morning so in the interest of consistency, I will do them tomorrow morning along with taking some pics. Though I don't see any real difference in my body composition, and don't expect to see any real weight loss, I feel good and I've learned a lot. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I think I've been overdoing my carb intake, which is keeping me from losing this stubborn belly fat. So, my plan is to monitor my carbs and shoot for <100g/day for the next 2 weeks. I still think paleo is a great lifestyle, but it is so important to tailor it to your specific dietary needs. Yes, it would be lovely to not have to track everything I eat, but that may not be realistic for me right now.  In order to loose fat, I have to stay light on carbs, even when I'm working out 5 days/wk. Its just the way I'm made.

I had my usual for breakfast but was careful to measure exactly 1/2 cup of blueberries, and use a 4inch piece of banana in my breakfast cake. My carbs for this meal came out to 42g. Yes, this is almost half of my daily allowance, but I generally eat most of my carbs in the morning anyway. I was super hungry after CrossFit this morning, as our WOD was pretty taxing. Here it is:

DYNAMIC WARM UP-
SAMSON STRETCH – 30 SECONDS
KARAOKE- 45 SECONDS
WALKING HIGH KNEE PULLS – 45 SECONDS
WALKING QUAD PULL – 45 SECONDS
SHOULDER CIRCLES- 45 SECONDS
20 PRESSES 10LB. BALL
SKILL- SPLIT JERK DELIVERED BY THE CLEAN
WOD- “3 BARS OF DEATH” OR “LINDA”  - FOR TIME
10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1
POWER CLEAN- RX 75% BODY WEIGHT
BENCH PRESS OR PUSH UP-RX BODY WEIGHT
DEADLIFTS- 1.5 X BODYWEIGHT

For lunch I had leftovers from last night: grilled chicken (5oz), grilled veggies (zucchini, peppers, onions), romaine, salsa, and 1/4 of an avocado. This brought my carb count up to 70g. If I would have cut out the onions, the carb load would have been less, but I thought about this after the fact.

I snacked on leftover grilled chicken and had two scoops of my "almond butter" heated with two tbsp of coconut milk.  Last night I attempted to make almond butter but alas, my blender was not gonna hack it, so I ended up with a very loose interpretation. The good news is that I should be able to use it to make Paleo "oatmeal" tomorrow.

Tonight I made sweet-potato carrot cakes, grassfed beef burgers and kale chips. I was skeptical about the cakes but they turned out delicious! Here is the recipe:

1 cup sweet potato grated
1 cup carrots grated
1 tbsp coconut flour
3 egg
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
pinch of salt

I formed 8 patties out of this mixture and stuck them in the fridge to firm up. This step probably wasn't necessary but since the mixture was so wet, I was worried they would fall apart. After about 30 minutes I removed them from the fridge and heated a skillet to medium low. I melted about 2 tsp of coconut oil in the pan and then added the patties, allowing them to brown on both side (about 4 minutes/side).

 I coated the kale with olive oil and salt and allowed it to cook for 20 minutes at 275. The chips turned out great but I elected to save them for snack tomorrow.

 Dinner was awesome! I used the carrot-sweet potato cakes almost in place of a burger bun. I also topped mine with a fried egg, and finished everything off with homemade ketchup and fresh jalepenos.

My goal was to stay under 100g of carbs today and once I added dinner into my diet log (I use My Fitness Pal on my iphone) I was at 90g. I don't love that I'm having to track meals again, but I'm really curious to see what reducing my carb load does to my body.